Alhambra: Hot Red Bus suddenly announced closure on Oct 6 via Facebook. You will be missed, I know ownership was trying to grow their family and sadly, the somewhat tragic Baja Fish Taco (of Alhambra) has apparently bought out the business. It makes sense as the fryers and grease pit is already in place, as is the hard-to-come beer license in Alhambra. Me? I’ll stick to East LA fish tacos. 31 E Main St

Monterey Park: Brew Kitchen Bar soft opened October 18 (even though the picture was taken way too long ago and shows “Coming Soon”). This looks to be a hometown effort as all the partners on the ABC (Beer and Wine only; it’s darn difficult to get a new hard liquor license in Monterey Park these days.) are Cantonese/Chiu-Chow. MPK desperately needed a pub where fams can gather, where there is working A/C (I’m looking at you Ravello), where there are good drinks (And I’m looking at you Venice Room). Just be weary of all the cops trolling Garfield Ave as well as the 60 on-ramps. There have been many time periods where there were frequent sobriety checks in the immediate vacinity. 2328 S. GARFIELD AVE. UNIT A

Alhambra: Ohana Brewing‘s Andrew Luthi confirmed on Oct 22 that the tasting room is finally allowed to pour “full pours”. No more little ketchup cup sized “tasters” before you buy a growler fill. The tasting room is still not allowed to have seating per the ABC, but Luthi has renovated and the space will be more conducive to friendly gatherings. I am very, very, VERY excited about this. 7 S 1st St

Alhambra: Budda Belly opened last week, taking over the defunct Dip’s Grill. The food look… perturbing. Apparently the asking price for Dip’s Grill was 250K. G’luck to the new tenants, I hope they didn’t actually pay a quarter mil just to take over a failed restaurant. 39 W Main St

Monterey Park: Charcoal No 1 has relocated to Chandler. This is the same ownership team as the old restaurant on Garfield which spent over a year waiting on its beer license. 112 N Chandler

Monterey Park: Gi Gi, a Taiwanese “tea house” with nary a boba milk tea menu, opened early in October. The Yelp reviews are sucking, and for a good reason. An early visit yielded one of the worst restaurant meals in SGV of ’17. G’luck to these folks as well. The location already has bad jiu jiu and the food along with horrific service isn’t help. 122 W Garvey

Alhambra: White Prawn took over a dying hot potting place. It is also a hot potting place. Even though the namesake is a sea creature, this place actually serves spicy meat hot pots. It was crazy how long the old place lasted; this one is on instant death watch, as is the other “new” potting on Valley next to 101 Noodle Express. 46 W Valley

San Gabriel: Lameizi, yet another Sichuan style hot pot place, is taking over the failed Chengdu Pot. The first Lameizi (read: hot chick) opened in Rowland Heights. SGV is a hot potting town, through and through. There are simply more hot pot – type (including dry pot, including mao cao) restaurant being opened and flipped and reopend than any other cuisine. 1530 S San Gabriel Blv